By Justist Rice,

Freedom of the press is very important because it gives everybody a right to voice their opinions and express how people really feel. There have been more and more victims to police brutality every day. People’s families have been broken because of the deaths of family members at the hands of police abusing their authority. There are so many people who are hurt and angry. They all have stories to tell, and freedom of the press helps them tell their stories.

Government censorship affects journalism in a very bad way, because it blocks out and ignores very important facts,  making it difficult to tell the whole story. Before Freedom of the Press, people weren’t allowed to voice their opinions, and if they did they were either arrested or bullied, and were stopped from writing–period.

There are limits to Freedom of the Press, such as libel, fabrication, and invasion of privacy. All these things are forbidden. People are not allowed to publish false statements to damage someone else’s reputation. It’s also forbidden to invade someone else’s privacy, meaning you can’t take a picture of someone if they are not in a public place. Similarly, you can’t hack into someone’s emails or messages and post them online.

In many states, reporters for school publications do not have the same rights as other news reporters. In many schools, student reporters are not allowed to talk about certain things, such as politics. The Maryland New Voices Act, which went into affect this October, allows student journalists to exercise freedom of speech without prior restraint. It gives student reporters a chance to express their opinions on any topic. Freedom of the Press is essential for people who want their voices to be heard, who are tired of being overlooked, who want to vent to the world.